Teango Bheo: More than 2.3 million people use DuoLingo to learn the Irish language

DuoLingo is a free application, available on iOS and Android, which enables users to learn languages from all around the world. The Irish course was launched just over 2 years ago and since that time, some 2.3 million people have used the service.

Irish is amongst the 10 most popular languages offered by DuoLingo, with the majority of the new learners located in the US.

Speaking about this success, Oisín Ó Doinn, Irish Research Council Scholar, and one of the contributors to the Duolingo Irish course says:

“Having been involved with the Duolingo Irish course from the past two and a half years , I am delighted to see that so many people have benefitted from this free language learning resource. The fact that an average of 3,000 people a day have begun using the Duolingo Irish course since then shows the massive worldwide interest in our native language and makes all the hard work we put in worthwhile.”

Representatives of Duolingo, Conradh na Gaeilge and the course contributors attended reception at Áras an Uachtaráin on Friday morning to meet with President Michael D. Higgins, and to talk with him about their ongoing work for the Irish language. Conradh na Gaeilge will be launching a special award scheme in 2017 to recognise special contributions to the revival of the Irish language.

Gina Gotthilf, Vice President of Growth at Duolingo says:

“In the 4 years since we launched Duolingo, we've launched 87 different courses to provide free language education for over 150 million learners. We are proud of the work put in by the contributors who created the Irish course, and especially excited to play a part in reinvigorating this beautiful language and helping create new Irish-speaking communities for the 21st Century.”